Collectibles & Story (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Saturday, January 29, 2022, 08:50 (811 days ago) @ Vortech
edited by Cody Miller, Saturday, January 29, 2022, 08:53

Because it's rarely Gone Home, or Edith Finch. It's usually not integrated into the playing, but a fully separate "bonus DVD content" vibe on a screen that's far too low resolution to be the preferred place for me to read.

(note that I have not played Control and I'm speaking generally here)

I think this is a good way to put it. In fact, this is the key issue.

A lot of these things are games wanting the benefits of making an RPG, but without actually making one. Look at Deus Ex. It's an RPG, so all of these modes of interaction and play make sense and are actually a part of the game. Control is an action game, where none of this stuff is actually integrated into the way you play. The language of the game is about moving and killing. But the language of Deus Ex is far greater. Which is why speaking to people or hacking a computer and reading emails feels okay.

I don't think the folks making games have really appreciated or even really seem to understand, that to tell the stories they want to tell with games the way they are, you have to make an RPG instead. Then lean into elements of whatever other genre you want, and boom.

Put it in the movie, not on the DVD extras, as you say.